Tony Martin successfully defends his Tour of Beijing overall title
Tony Martin of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step was only one step away from securing the biggest victory of his 2012 season.
He was leading the Tour of Beijing overall classifications with a margin of 40 seconds on Francesco Gavazzi of Team Astana and Daniel Martin of Team Garmin-Sharp after the stage 4 overall classifications.
The German has enjoyed a splendid season with several victories in his bag including World Time Trial, World Time Trial and National Time Trial Championships under his belt.
He succeeded during the Individual Time Trial stage 4 of the Tour of Belgium and also managed to claim an overall victory at the race along with a second overall position at the Volta ao Algarve and fifth overall at the Tour of the Basque Country 2012.
However, one joy that was missing from Martin’s 2012 performance was the deficiency of UCI points because most of the races he won are not recognised as the UCI World Tour events.
Tour of Beijing is the last race on the UCI World Tour calendar and it was indeed an ideal opportunity for the German to secure some important UCI points.
He was rather watchful during the first stage of the race, but was right back on track with his first place finish at the stage 2 of the five-day race and claimed the top overall spot after the second stage.
The 27-year-old was riding the Tour of Beijing race as a defending champion after he managed to secure an overall victory during the first edition of the race, back in 2011.
He was delighted after claiming the top podium position at the Tour of Beijing final general classifications and thanked his team mates for their support throughout the race.
“It’s a fantastic feeling. I’m really so proud of the team again today, without them we couldn’t have made it. This success is for the whole team,” he said.
He further added, “It’s a really special win for me because I think there was a little bit of pressure on me as a lot of people were expecting for me to win again”.
“But there was no time trial, so I had to try something else. I’m really proud of myself”.
Francesco Gavazzi of Team Astana Pro Team finished 40 seconds behind at the second position with Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky Procycling, Daniel Martin of Team Garmin-Sharp and Eros Capecchi of Team Liquigas-Cannondale claiming the next four positions
respectively.
Tags: